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INDEPENDENCE: As questions about his future mount, Cavs coach Byron Scott said he can’t evaluate the job he has done yet because he doesn’t have all the pieces. He refuses to publicly defend himself, so Tristan Thompson chose Thursday to do it for him.

“All the rumors about Coach Scott, hot seat and all that crap, that’s bogus,” Thompson said. “It’s up to us to go out and compete and play hard because we’re the ones out there. When he was out there playing, he won championships. It’s up to us to go out there and play.”

The Cavs drag a 10-game losing streak into Boston on Friday, the third double-digit losing streak in Scott’s three years.

Asked Thursday whether or not he feels good about the job he has done here, Scott responded, “I haven’t had all my pieces, so I don’t know. I can’t even grade myself right now. And if I did, I’d probably say a C or an incomplete. That’s just being honest.”

Scott said he expected the Cavs rebuilding project to take between three and five years, the first time anyone in the organization has put a timetable on the development.

“It’s still right on that timetable, as far as I’m concerned,” Scott said. “But there’s been some times it’s probably been tougher than I expected. But if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger.”

The Cavs held what Thompson termed an “in-house meeting” on Thursday. Scott struggled to sleep following Wednesday’s embarrassing home loss to the Brooklyn Nets, waking up at 3:33 a.m. with plenty of issues on his mind, although he wouldn’t disclose what they were.

Scott said one player spoke up in the meeting and said the performance against the Nets was unacceptable. He wouldn’t say who the player was, but said it was one of the young guys.

Scott has been given a couple of opportunities to defend himself and the job he has done with the Cavaliers, but he has consistently declined.

“I don’t necessarily think I need to defend myself to the public or especially in the papers,” Scott said. “I know what I’m doing here. I know what type of job I’m doing, I know what I’m given, I know what we’re working with, I know the situation that we’re under. So I don’t really feel that I need to defend myself. Simple as that.”